Facts about your favorite Writers


Rowling was an unemployed single mother on public assistance when she wrote the first book. Today however,  Rowling is the one of the world’s richest authors.

 

rowling

 

Dan Brown is a fan of hanging upside down like a bat. He uses gravity boots to get rid of his Writer’s Block..

Stuck Err.. Are v ??

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Chetan Bhagat had collected a pretty comprehensive set of rejection letters before Five Point Someone became a huge hit . 

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China banned Alice in Wonderland because they believed that animals should not be given the power to use the language of humans.

 

If you don't think you shouldn't talk

 

Charles Dickens believed that sleeping facing North, would improve his writing

 

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Interestingly, William Shakespeare invented the word “hurry.” Also were these –  boredom, disgraceful, hostile, money’s worth, obscene, puke, perplex. Until then, people had to have their conversations without these words.

 

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 E. L. James The Fifty Shades trilogy was developed from a Twilight Fan Fiction  series originally titled Master of the Universe and published  under the pen name “Snowqueen’s Icedragon”.

 

Master of the Universe by Snowqueens Icedragon

 

 

 

6 Things Readers say to Non Readers


#1. You … don’t … read … books? Like nothing at all?

Humor/ History/ Graphics..Anything ?

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#2. But why? Do you not have books? Do you need books? Or money to buy some.. I can help !

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#3. Travelling Ahem ! That part where they tell you to switch off all your electronic devices – Yeah That ?

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#4. You can’t possibly think the movie is better than the Book? Oh Plz

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#5. But then again – Why don’t you read ? What do you do instead of reading, sit around and stare at things?

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#6. And if they still don’t fall in love with books

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& If a Non reader finally agrees to read – that feeling – Hell Yeah !

4

8 Reasons Why Real Books Are Better Than eBooks !


#1. EVERY TIME YOU ARE ON  A FLIGHT WITH YOUR LITTLE PRANKSTER YOU DON’T HAVE TO SWITCH OFF HIS FAVORITE GRAPHIC BOOK

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#2. CAN YOU GET YOUR eBOOK SIGNED BY YOUR FAVORITE AUTHOR ?

hhn

#3. THE JOY OF HOLDING THE MUCH AWAITED BOOK IN IT’S HARD BOUND PACKING !

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#4. THAT MINI HEART ATTACK EVERY TIME WATER SPLASHES AROUND YOUR eBOOK

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#5. WITH A PHYSICAL BOOK IS ALL ABOUT TOUCH, FEEL & SNIFF

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#6.  WHEN YOUR GIRLFRIEND IS ANGRY IT’S BETTER TO GIFT HER A BOOK THAN AN eBOOK –

BOUND TO HURT LESS  – OOPS MISSED THAT !

#7.  ROUTINE OF- LOOKING AT THE COVER, READING THE BACK STORY, LOOKING AT THE FLAPS, FLIPPING THOUGH PAGES IS IRREPLACEABLE

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#8. SO TRUE !

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10 Things All Book Lovers Relate To!


#1. IF YOU EVER INTERRUPT ME WHEN I’M READING ..

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#2. WHEN I SEE SOMEONE BEND A BOOK COVER BACKWARDS

I’m like:

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#3. REACTION WHEN YOU FIND SOMEONE WHOSE FAVORITE BOOK IS THE SAME AS YOURS.

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#4. EVERY BOOK LOVER WILL SWEAR BY THIS !

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#5.  EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE YOU WERE TEMPTED TO DO THIS :

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#6. YEAH EVERY TIME !

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#7. BOOK SPOILER ALERTS : FOR PEOPLE WHO SPOIL THE SUSPENSE

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#8.  WHENEVER YOU ARE CLOSE TO A BOOKSTORE

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#9. WHEN SOMEBODY MISPLACES YOUR FAVROITE BOOK 

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.

#10. SOMETIMES YOU JUST GOTTA YELL IT TO THE WHOLE WORLD!!

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5 Types of Readers found in a Bookstore


Hello and Welcome back book lovers.

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of bookstore.”

Well bookstores are beautiful paradises filled with magical books and mythical & mystical readers wandering across dimensions. These readers surprise us with their knowledge, dictate us with their endless questions, and amuse us with their conversations

We just love our readers and today we give you an inside peak on the various type of readers we stumble upon in bookstores

 

  1. The Quiet Reader:

These types of readers find the best corners in the stores to read and they don’t want to be disturbed. Relaxed, composed and heavily invested in their books such readers would complain if they hear a single drop of noise also. Intellectually demanding they stand by the DONOT DISTURB ME Policy while reading in a store.

simposn
 

  1. The Caffeine Addict:

These readers just cannot read a book without putting huge amounts of coffee in their systems. You find them in book café’s or in reading areas with always a cup of coffee as they don’t enjoy reading without getting HIGH ON CAFFEINE. We do agree it is the best combination

coffee

 

  1. The Chatter ji’s:

Predominantly our YA crowd (teenagers). You will find them in groups and reading out aloud. You can hear their chitter chatter across the store on how Edward is so hawttt and how Augustus is the ideal boyfriend . You might even catch young couples holding hands and reading books to each other. Now that’s CUTE

couples

  1. The Social Reader:

These types of readers just want to have a good time. They enter a bookstore to have stimulating conversations with strangers, to start laugh riots and flaunt a know it all attitude. They can keep Booksellers busy all day in the store with their never ending questions and engaging conversations. In fact they don’t actually read books they read the WIKIPEDIA

dance

  1. The Wanderer :

This type of readers is actually really confused most of the time while selecting books. You will see them pacing around the store some 100 times figuring what to read, asking for recommendations and still not figuring out a book. You see them skimming various pages of different books to arrive at a conclusion.  We see them jumping genres, chasing too many booking and exuberating umpteen zeal at the sight of every new book.  We guess these type of readers will never be BORED by anything.

choose
 

We hope you enjoyed the blog..do drop in your comments if you are any of these types of readers.

 Happy Reading!

 Crossword Bookstores.

 

(P.S: List was combined by observing readers in our natural habitat (books))

 

5 Most Popular Indian Authors….


Hello and Welcome back book lovers.

Social media lets you connect with everybody and anybody on the go..and everybody who is anybody is present on these platforms tweeting, facebooking, regraming, texting ,tubing and hanging out. And we all love it when somebody you idolize and like tweets you back..

So we know all the celebrities, ministers, journalists, news anchors, cricketers who are all  present on all digital platforms and our Indian authors are not behind on the social media wagon..

Here is a looks at our popular literati on social media:

 

  1. Young India Mascot: Chetan Bhagat

Love him or hate him..you just cannot ignore him! With a Facebook following of more than 55 lakhs  and 6 successful books in his kitty, he is out to show a different India.. From films to politics he has an opinion on everything and for him any publicity is good publicity. He is the no 1 most followed author in the country.

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2.  The Gifted One: Ashwin Sanghi

This is one author with a vast love and source of knowledge, with more than 1lakhs twitter followers he keeps us entertained with witty quotes, news updates and historic facts. Completely down to earth with a warm heart and smile He stands no 2 on our list.

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3.   The Boy Next Door : Durjoy Datta

With his cute Srk dimples and boyish charm.. he going to melt your hearts .. His Fb and Instagram are all filled with pictures of his dimples and selfies with fans.. and girls cant get enough of him.. Fans drool on his fb status updates, stalk him on twitter and send him poems,gifts, love messages and much more. Fans have proclaimed him as a total hottie as his gan following is predominantly raving teenage girls..He is no 3 on our list with around 4 lakhs fan base and half a lakh followers on twitter

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4.   The King of Romance: Ravinder Singh

We did not mean Srk of Course..but he is currently the biggest romance writer in the country..His total desi flavour of writing has wooed fans all over the country.. his fans have cried over all his books. He his always regularly tweeting and facebooking on relationships and what are the best things that make a relationship. This Romantic star loves being in touch with his fans and is  listening to what young India feels on  love. He is our No 4 most popular author
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5.  God’s Own Child: Amish

Har Har Mahadev!! Bestowed as this decade’s Literary Popstar.. this author with 3 blockbuster books is a marketing wiz. Close to a lakh follower on fb and 50k follows on twitter he has grown instantly in the writers circuit.. Be it is advance paychecks or his movie deals.. this author make news  style. He only tweets but there is a huge fan following for his writing style .. he stand no 5 on our list

amish

Other Popular authors on social media include:

    1. Ravi Subramanian
    2. Devdutt Pattanaik
    3. Rashmi Bansal
    4. Amitav Ghosh
    5. Preeti Shenoy

authors

 

We do have a whole lot more names on the list obviously but we couldn’t fit everybody…Sorry 😉

Hope you enjoyed the post…do drop in your comments

Happy Reading!

Crossword Bookstores

 

PS : The list was combined based on their fan following on Facebook, twitter & the popularity rankings. And it is unbiased. Plus we excluded notable journalists, celebrities, critics, politicians who  have also written  books.

(Images made at makeagif.com)

 

15 Best Romantic Quotes From Books!


Hello & Welcome back Book Lovers.

Today we pick for you the best romantic, passionate and enticing quotes from your favorite books that will surely make your heart melt and make you want to cuddle these books again.

Be prepared to for some tear dropping..Happy reading!

 

1. “I’m in love with you, and I’m not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love with you.”
-The Fault in Our Stars (John Green)

hazel

2. “In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”
-Pride & Prejudice (Jane Austen)

jane

3. “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”

– Love Story (Erich Segal)

story

4. “And so the lion fell in love with the lamb….What a stupid lamb… What a sick, masochistic lion.”
– Twilight (Stephanie Meyer)

lion

5. “So it’s not gonna be easy. It’s going to be really hard; we’re gonna have to work at this everyday, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, everyday. You and me… every day.”
– The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)

forever

 

6. “If people were like rain, I was like drizzle and she was a hurricane.”
– Looking for Alaska (John Green)

rain

7. “That the last two letters in her name were the first two in his, a silly thing he never mentioned to her but caused him to believe that they were bound together.”
– Unaccustomed Earth (Jhumpa Lahiri)

love

8. “Maybe Okay will be our Always”

– The Fault in our Stars (John Green)
okay

(And yes we do all love John green)

9. “I’ve never had a moment’s doubt. I love you. I believe in you completely. You are my dearest one. My reason for life.”
– Atonement (Ian McEwan)

ian

10. “I’ve never wanted more, until I met you.”
– Fifty Shades of Grey (E.L. James,)

grey

11. “Finding someone you love and who loves you back is a wonderful, wonderful feeling. But finding a true soul mate is an even better feeling. A soul mate is someone who understands you like no other, loves you like no other, will be there for you forever, no matter what. They say that nothing lasts forever, but I am a firm believer in the fact that for some, love lives on even after we’re gone.”
– P.S. I Love You (Cecelia Ahern)

loveyou

12. ‘Tis better to have loved and lost, Than never to have loved at all.”
– In Memoriam A.H.H ( Alfred Lord Tennyson)
simba

 

13. “Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.”
– Romeo & Juliet (William Shakespeare)

leo

 

14. “I have waited for this opportunity for more than half a century, to repeat to you once again my vow of eternal fidelity and everlasting love.”
– Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel García Márquez)

elena

(We know that many would debate it’s not a romantic quote but we surely feel it is one in the most simplest of words)

15. After all this time?”
“Always,” said Snape.”
– Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows ( J K Rowling)

snape

 

Hope you enjoyed it..do drop in your comments!

Signing off for now..

Crossword Bookstores.

 

(These quotes were compiled after asking customers, reader’s through a survey and some help elsewhere. Images via giphy.com and tumblr.com)

10 Reasons to visit a Bookstore this Month!


 

Hello and Welcome back book lovers. Sorry we haven’t updated in a while..

But we promise to give you some exciting reads from now on…

 

So if you are an online junkie or too busy or just plain lazy to go and visit a bookstore.. we give you some amazing reasons that will make you want to get up from comfy seats and get going..

 

  1. Sipping a hot cup of coffee and reading a book is the perfect way to enjoy the monsoon season.. and what better place than a bookstore.

 

  1. So if you are an online junkie or just lazy it’s a perfect exercise without too much effort.. a stroll in a store is all you need to lose some excess calories.

 

 

  1. Smell of old and new books in a store will make you feel like heaven..

 

 

  1. You can read books all day long in a bookstore in cosy corners without getting disturbed and without buying the book.

 

  1. Buying books at the store equals to making new friends equals to new crushes on fictional characters.

big bang

 

  1. You can meet new like minded people at a bookstore or you might even meet the love of your life there..you never know 😉

 

  1. Reading and browsing books makes you look intelligent and sexy.

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  1. You will never discover new books by sitting at home.

potter

 

  1. Who wouldn’t want to be surrounded by loads of books and it only happens at a bookstore!

 

   10. And lastly personalized suggestion for books is an experience you won’t get anywhere.

 

So do visit soon a bookstore near you..its the  month for discounts and its loyal readers like you who keep us in business 😉

 

Happy Reading!

Crossword Bookstores.

 

 

(images sources via gify.com and tumblr.com)

 

 

‘Half Bad’


 

You can’t read, can’t write, but you heal fast, even for a witch.    half-bad-400x400-imadty4qnqcfcdxr

You get sick if you stay indoors after dark.

You hate White Witches but love Annalise, who is one.

You’ve been kept in a cage since you were fourteen.

All you’ve got to do is escape and find Mercury, the Black Witch who eats boys. And do that before your seventeenth birthday.

Easy.

Are you curious to know more..?

Well today we give you a sneak peek into the new YA Fiction book that’s been creating raves across the world.

Sally Green’s Debut Novel ‘Half Bad ‘is about one boy’s struggle for survival in a hidden society of witches.  It is set in modern-day England. Witches and Humans live together. There are the Black Witches and the White Witches. The 16-year-old protagonist, Nathan is half-white and half-black. His mother is dead, and his father is the most powerful and the cruelest Black Witch in the world. Trapped in a cage and abused, Nathan has to escape before his seventeenth birthday, when he will receive three gifts from his father and his magical ability. Otherwise, he will die.

We are very excited to read this book..Hope you are too!!

Below is an extract from the Book. The book releases at a Crossword store near you as well as www.crossword.in  from 24th March 2014

 

Part 1

The Trick

There’s these two kids, boys, sitting close together, squished in by the big arms of an old chair. You’re the one on the left.

The other boy’s warm to lean close to, and he moves his gaze from the telly to you, sort of in slow motion.

‘You enjoying it?’ he asks.

You nod. He puts his arm round you and turns back to the screen.

Afterwards you both want to try the thing in the film. You sneak the big box of matches from the kitchen drawer and run with them to the woods.

You go first. You light the match and hold it between your thumb and forefinger letting it burn right down until it goes out. Your fingers are burnt, but they hold the blackened match.

The trick works.

The other boy tries it too. Only he doesn’t do it. He drops the match.

Then you wake up and remember where you are.

The Cage

The trick is to not mind. Not mind about it hurting, not mind about anything.

The trick of not minding is key, it’s the only trick in town. Only this is not a town, it’s a cage, beside a cottage, surrounded by a load of hills and trees and sky.

It’s a one-trick cage.

Press-Ups

The routine is okay.

Waking up to sky and air is okay. Waking up to the cage and the shackles is what it is. You can’t let the cage get to you. The shackles rub, but healing is quick and easy, so what’s to mind?

The cage is loads better now that the sheepskins are in. Even when they’re damp they’re warm. The tarpaulin over the north end made a big improvement too. There’s shelter from the worst of the wind and rain. And a bit of shade if it’s hot and sunny. Joke! You’ve got to keep your sense of humour too.

So the routine is to wake-up as the sky lightens before dawn. You don’t have to move a muscle, don’t even have to open your eyes to know it’s getting light, and you can just lie there and take it all in.

The best bit of the day.

There aren’t many birds around, a few, not many. It would be good to know their names, but you know their different calls. There are no seagulls, which is something to think about, and there are no vapour trails either. The wind is usually quiet in the pre-dawn calm, and somehow the air feels warmer already as it gets light.

You can open your eyes now and there’s a few minutes to savour the sunrise, which today is a thin pink line stretching along the top of a narrow ribbon of cloud draped over the smudged green hills. And you’ve still got a minute, maybe even two, to get your head together before she appears.

You’ve got to have a plan though, and the best idea is to have it all worked out the night before so you can slip straight into the plan without a thought. Mostly the plan is to do what you’re told, but not everyday, and not today.

You wait until she appears and throws you the keys. You catch the keys, unlock your ankles, rub them to emphasise the pain she is inflicting, unlock your left manacle, unlock your right, stand, unlock the cage door, toss the keys back to her, open the cage door, step out keeping your head down, never look her in the eyes (unless that’s part of some other plan), rub your back and maybe groan a bit, walk to the vegetable bed, piss.

Sometimes she tries to mess with your head of course, by changing the routine. Sometimes she wants chores before exercises, but most days its press-ups first. You’ll know which whilst still zipping up.

‘Fifty.’

She says it quietly. She knows you’re listening.

You take your time as usual. That’s always part of the plan.

Make her wait.

Rub your right arm. The metal wristband cuts into it when the shackle is on. You heal it and get a faint buzz. Then, you roll your head, your shoulders, your head again, and stand there, just stand there for another second or two, pushing her to her limit, before you drop to the ground.

 

One                             Not minding

Two                             is the trick.

Three                           The only

Four                             trick.

Five                              But there are

Six                                loads of

Seven                           tactics.

Eight                             Loads.

Nine                             On the look-out

Ten                              all the time.

Eleven                          All the time.

Twelve                                     And it’s

Thirteen                       easy.

Fourteen                      Cos there ain’t

Fifteen                          nothing else

Sixteen                                     to do.

Seventeen                    Look out for what?

Eighteen                       Something.

Nineteen                      Anything.

Twenty                                    En

Twenty-one                 E

Twenty-two                 Thing.

Twenty-three               A mistake.

Twenty-four                 A chance.

Twenty-five                  An oversight.

Twenty-six                   The

Twenty-seven              tiniest

Twenty-eight                error

Twenty-nine                 by the

Thirty                           White

Thirty-one                    Witch

Thirty-two                   from

Thirty-three                 Hell.

Thirty-four                   Cos she makes

Thirty-five                    mistakes.

Thirty-six                     Oh yes.

Thirty-seven                 And if that

Thirty-eight                  comes to

Thirty-nine                   nothing

Forty                            you wait

Forty-one                     for the next one

Forty-two                     and the next one

Forty-three                  and the next one.

Forty-four                    Until

Forty-five                     you

Forty-six                      succeed.

Forty-seven                  Until

Forty-eight                   you’re

Forty-nine                    free.

You get up. She will have been counting, but never letting up is another tactic.

She doesn’t say anything but steps towards you and backhands you across the face.

Fifty                              ‘Fifty.’

 

As If!

After press-ups it’s just standing and waiting. Best look at the ground. You’re by the cage on the path. It’s got mud on it, but you won’t be sweeping it, not today, not with this plan. It’s rained a lot in the last few days. Autumn’s coming on fast. Still, today it’s not raining, already it’s going well.

‘Do the outer circuit.’ Again she’s quiet. No need to raise her voice.

And off you jog . . . but not yet. You’ve got to keep her thinking you’re being your usual difficult-yet-basically-complying self, and so you knock mud off your boots, left boot heel on right toe followed by right boot heel on left toe, you raise a hand and look up and around as if you’re assessing the wind direction, you spit on the potato plants, look left and right like you’re waiting for a gap in the traffic and . . . let the bus go past . . . and then you’re off.

You take the dry-stone wall with a leap to the top and over, then across the moorland, heading to the trees.

Freedom.

As if!

 

Publisher: Penguin Books India

 Price: Rs 350

 You can also pre order it on http://www.crossword.in

 

Signing off for now

 Until next time Geeks.

 Happy Reading!

Crossword Bookstores

Sneak Peek of ‘Private Down Under’


Hello & Welcome back Book Lovers, it’s been a while.  private-down-under

We apologize for not updating on the blog regularly.

But we promise to update it from now on 🙂

When the police can’t help you and the press will destroy you, when you need maximum force and maximum discretion, there’s only one place to go—Private, the detective agency that will get the job done, even if they have to break a few rules to do it.

Today we give you a sneak peek into the latest book in the ‘Private Series’  by James Patterson.

Jack Morgan, no 1 Private Detective  is back in the new book with a newly opened agency in Australia and new unsolved crimes that await him in Private Down Under

Read the preview to know more about the book

Also do drop in your comments below if you are excited to read the book.

Prologue

I’d seen pictures of Justine Smith, Jack Morgan’s No. 2 at Private LA, but she was far more beautiful in the flesh.

I stood at Sydney Airport International Arrivals and watched her waft out of customs with a trolley looking like she was ready for a model shoot – no clue she’d just been on a 14-hour flight.  She was here to launch the latest branch of the Private franchise created by Jack Morgan in LA – a top-notch investigative agency for top-notch people.

I held back, let her family greet her first.  There was her sister, Great, and husband, my new buddy, Brett Thorogood, the Deputy Commissioner of the New South Wales Police, their kids, Nikki, eight and Serge, ten.  Then I stepped forward, shock her hand.

I’d parked my Ferrari 458 Spider in the pick-up zone.  The Thorogoods headed off after we’d all synchronized watches for the launch party tonight and we were off, pulling out of the airport and onto the sun-drenched freeway.

None of us could have known what a fuck of a week we were about to have.

Chapter 1

He can see nothing.

He can hear nothing.

He runs, gasping, hits a hard object – face first.  His nose shatters, sending a cascade of agony through his head and down his spine.  Falls back, slams to the floor.  His head cracking on the concrete.  More pain.

He can see nothing.

He can hear nothing.

The sack hood over his head stinks of sweat and blood.  He tries to loosen the ties, but it’s no good.

He vomits, it hits the fabric, splashes on his face.

He thinks he’ll choke and part of him doesn’t care, wants it.  But the survival genes kick in and he panics, pulls up, the spew running down his shirt.  He reaches out and touches the wall. Moves left as fast as he can.  He feels the vibration of feet, people running toward him.

A burst of terrible agony in his back.  Two thumps propel him to the wall.  He smells fresh blood.  He smells tire rubber.  Another crunch, his thigh exploding.  But he keeps to the wall, sweat running down his ruined face, blood drops from his nose, his leg, his back.  He feels wet all over.  He’s a leaking sieve, his life draining away.  The pain in his legs screams.  The hood fabric sucks into his mouth.

He has to keep going. “MOVE OR DIE…MOVE OR DIE,” a voice bellows in his head.  Shrapnel clips his ear.  He screeches, feels his guts heave.  Another bullet thunders past his head, but he doesn’t hear it, just feels the air tremble.  Dust and concrete chips hit him in the face.  His legs start to buckle, but he refuses to give in.

“MOVE OR DIE.  MOVE OR DIE.”

He feels a door, pushes, stumbles through, trips, hits the concrete floor again.  Blood splashes across the floor, up the walls.  He pulls up once more.

He’s on a roller coaster, at the park with Grandma.  He’s four years old.  Then he’s floating in space.  No reference points.

He can see nothing.

He can hear nothing.

He sense the air tremble again.

He touches wood.  Another door.  It moves forward.  He’s falling…and dies before he hits the ground.

Chapter 2

I heard the crash from the other side of the room and for a second I thought one of the hired caterers had screwed up.  But then a woman screamed and I was dashing across reception.

I caught a glimpse of my right-hand woman, Mary Clarke, spin on her heel.  She’s a big, muscly girl but has the reaction time of Usain Bolt off the blocks.

I saw the blood first.  A smear, then a dark pool spreading out across the marble.  The man lay spread-eagled on the floor, face down, torn apart, gaping holes in his back, his right leg shattered, twisted obscenely under him.  A hood over his head.

I crouched down as Justine Smith ran up.

Pulling a tissue from my pocket, I wrapped it around my fingers, turned the body over and tried to remove the hood, but it was tied fast.  I glanced up to see Deputy Commissioner Thorogood.

“Jesus!” he said as he lowered beside me.

“Multiple gunshot wounds.  Twice in the back, leg.” I said and tilted the body so Thorogood could see the ragged circles in the guy’s linen jacket.

Darlene, Private’s tech guru, squatted down close to the body.  She’s usually in a lab coat over jeans, but tonight she was wearing a red cocktail dress that accentuated her incredible curves.  She pulled on latex gloves, removed a sharp implement from her clutch purse.  Leaning forward, she cut the ties of the hood and eased up the fabric.

“Holy Christ!” Thorogood exclaimed.

 

Chapter 3

His eyes had been gouged out.  There were two red craters in their place.  The skin was jagged, blood oozing.  A gray bundle of nerves snaked from the left socket and stuck to the skin of the man’s cheek.

It was hard to tell for sure, but he looked like a young kid, maybe late teens, twenty tops.  The rest of his face was smeared, his nose smashed to hell.

I heard Johnny Ishmah, the youngest of my team, behind me.  I turned to him. “Johnny get everyone out.” Then I saw Mary.  “Come with me.”

The Deputy Commissioner straightened and pulled out his cell as he walked away.

I heard him say “Inspector…”  His boys would be here in minutes.

“Well, not your average gatecrasher,” I heard Darlene mumble as Mary and I headed for the door.

“Blood trail.” I flicked a glance at the floor just beyond the door

“Passage leads ahead to the garage”, Mary responded

There was a slew of blood across the concrete, up the walls.  Picking our way round the puddles I leaned on the second door and we were out onto “Garage Level 1”.  Plenty of blood still, oval droplets on the rough concrete.  The sort of splashes someone makes when they are running and bleeding at the same time.

The poor kid had stopped here, blood had pooled into a patch about two feet wide that was ripplng away toward a drain in the floor.  The trail led off to the left.  Three cars stood there, a Merc, a Prius and my black Spider.  Tire marks close to the bend, more blood.

I bent down and picked up a shell casing, holding it in the tissue still in my hand.

“.357 Sig,” Mary said.  She was ex-Military Police, knew a thing or two.

“Pros.”

“Must be cameras everywhere.” She glanced around

“Small garage.  There’s a guard at the gate.  He has a security camera system.” I turned and led the way back.  The road narrowed , a barrier twenty yards ahead.  Next to that, a booth.

I could see immediately the place was hit.  Glass everywhere, the guard slumped unconscious, a row of monitors and inch from his head.  The cable to the hard drive dangling.  Standard system…record the garage for twelve-hour rotations on a terbyte hard drive.  Wipe it, start again.

“Took the hard drive,” Mary said nodding at the lead.

I crouched down beside the guard and lifted his head gently.  He stirred, pulled back and went for his gun.  That had gone too.

“Whoa buddy!” Mary exclaimed, palms up.

The guy recognised me. “Mr Gisto.’ He ran a hand over his forehead.  “Holy shit…”

“Easy, pal.” I placed a hand on his shoulder.  “Remember anything?”

He sighed.  “Couple of guys in black hoodies.  It all happened so bloody quick…”

“Alright,” I said, turning to Mary.  There was a sudden movement beyond the booth window. A cop in a power stance, finger poised to the trigger.

A second later Deputy Commissioner Thorogood appeared in the doorway, touched the offier’s arm.  “Put it down, constable.”

It was then I saw the third guy, standing next to Thorogood.  Middle build, five-ten, hard, lived-in face.  I recognised him immediately and felt a jolt of painful memories.  Covered it well.  I knew he instantly recognized me, but he pretended he hadn’t. The devious son of a bitch.

 

About the author:

JAMES PATTERSON is one of the best-known and biggest-selling writers of all time. He is the author of some of the most popular series of the past decade the Alex Cross, Womens Murder Club and Detective Michael Bennett novels and he has written many other number one bestsellers including romance novels and stand-alone thrillers. James is very supportive of the National Literacy Trust, an independent, UK-based charity that changes lives through literacy. In 2010, he was voted Author of the Year at the Childrens Choice Book Awards in New York.

Publisher: Random House India

Price: Rs 399

The book is available on http://www.crossword.in and at a Crossword store near you.

Signing off for now

Until next time Geeks.

Happy Reading!

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